Wednesday, November 17, 2010

"THE SOCIAL NETWORK" (2010) Review

"THE SOCIAL NETWORK" (2010) Review

One of the new movies being touted as a strong Oscar contender is David Fincher’s new movie called ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK”. Based upon Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book about the founding of Facebook - The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal” - the movie starred Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield as two of Facebook’s co-founders, Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin.

”THE SOCIAL NETWORK” began in 2003, when Harvard University student, Mark Zuckerberg, came up with the idea to create a website to rate the attractiveness of female Harvard undergraduates, after his girlfriend Erica Albright broke up with him. After downloading photos and names of female students from the various databases of resident halls, Zuckerberg created a website called ”FaceMash” where male students can choose which of two girls presented at a time is more attractive. Zuckerberg’s actions became the catalyst for the creation of ”Facebook”, when his ”FaceMash” site attracted the attention of twin brothers Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss and their friend and partner, Divya Narendra, who hire him as their programmer for their site, ”Harvard Connection”. Instead, Zuckerberg asked his friend Eduardo Saverin to finance a new site he planned to create called ”Thefacebook”, the predecessor to ”Facebook”. Zuckerberg’s new site also attracted the attention of entrepreneur and co-founder of ”Napster”, Sean Parker, of whom Saverin developed a dislike. The website also led to the formation of a new corporation, the end of Zuckerberg and Saverin’s friendship and several lawsuits filed against him.

From a technical point of view, ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK” is an excellent movie. Director David Fincher did an excellent job of making the best of Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay. And the latter portrayed the creation of Facebook and the conflicts of all those involved with a witty and complex story. When I had first saw the trailer for ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK”, I suspected that the movie would portray Zuckerberg as this one-dimensional, arrogant and cold-blooded nerd with an inability to communicate with anyone. Superficially, actor Jesse Eisenberg portrayed the entrepreneur in that matter. But thanks to Fincher’s direction, Sorkin’s script and Eisenberg’s performance, Zuckerberg is portrayed with greater complexity. And I can say the same about the other characters. My only complaint about the movie is that I found the revelation that the scenes depicting the creation of ”Facebook” were flashbacks handled in a very awkward manner.

Aside from Eisenberg’s excellent performance, I was also impressed by Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of ”Facebook” co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Like Eisenberg, he gave a complex portrayal of his character without losing any sympathy. Armie Hammer must have had a ball portraying the Winklevoss twins. Rooney Mara was very effective as Erica Albright, the ”girl who got away” and whose rejection of Zuckerberg set in motion the creation of ”Facebook”. But I was truly impressed by Justin Timberlake’s portrayal of ”Facebook consultant and entrepreneur Sean Parker. I had no idea that the singer had the acting chops to portray such an energetic and complex role. Also, it was interesting to see Joseph Mazello (of ”JURASSIC PARK” and the recent HBO miniseries, ”THE PACIFIC”) portraying another ”Facebook” co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz. However, he does not seem to physically resemble the actual person.

From a technical point of view, it is easy to see why ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK” has become a front runner for the Academy Awards. It is basically a well made movie with very little flaws. However, it has failed to become a favorite of mine. Why? Quite simply, it left me feeling cold. It failed to move me. I found the events of the creation of ”Facebook” and the law suits that followed interesting . . . but cold. I suspect my lack of emotions over the film has a lot to do with Fincher’s chilly direction and my inability to really care for any of the characters. I like complex characters in fictional or biographical stories a lot. But I found the characters in ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK” simply too chilly and self-involved for my tastes. And Fincher’s direction and Sorkin’s script failed to make me care about them or their situation. However, I am certain that movie will do well during the upcoming movie awards season.